


The One Where Everyone Is Better

by Rawko



Category: Persona 5, Persona Series
Genre: Mentioned Akechi Goro
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-28
Updated: 2019-08-28
Packaged: 2020-09-28 08:49:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,428
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20423219
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rawko/pseuds/Rawko
Summary: Just a short one-shot to start off my writing, really.Yuuki Mishima believes he has no use, and that everyone else is better than him.





	The One Where Everyone Is Better

Yuuki Mishima was never considered important. Not only was his past of being bullied by students a problem and Kamoshida's constant abuse, but he was never a social butterfly to begin with. He could never forget spreading the lies and rumours of his friend, Ren Amamiya. It pained Yuuki, so much so that he seems devoted to Ren, and the recent hobby his friend has seemed to have picked up, regarding hearts. Despite the help he gave, Yuuki had much regret in his life, and felt like he wasn't needed for anything.

His self confidence was lacking big time.

_ **~Afternoon~** _

"Mishima!"

'Oh, right.' He thought, as he lifted his head from the desk. 'School...'

Yuuki was up all night, as per usual. But being the creator of the Phantom Aficionado Website, and evidently creating a whole new "Phandom", he has had to pull many more all nighters.

  
He ended up looking at the tired voice calling his name. Of course, it was his teacher, Sadayo Kawakami, who too looked as if she had seen better days.

"Hmm...?" He murmured out, still half asleep. He groggily looked at the board and his heart sunk. 'Shit.' He thought. 'The social studies trip...'

"No sleeping in class, jeez... The TV station is in Akasaka Mitsuke, and we've been asked to..." Kawakami went on to talk about the trips, and how there may be guest stars attending, celebrities if you will.

Yuuki switched off after hearing that. 'The Phantom Thieves should attend, they're the real celebs... wait, they could...' He thought to himself briefly, taking note. He stared out the window for a while, occasionally checking the Phan-Site and blocking hateful comments thrown towards the group who unanimously steal hearts.

_ **~After School~** _

Yuuki was still sat at his desk, finishing up some late work. He had overheard some girls talking about Goro Akechi, the Detective Prince. He personally disliked the detective, and preferred other Seekers of Truth. He stood up, packed up his work and walked over to three individuals.

"Ugh, I just wanna ditch it..." spoke a blond dyed, menacing looking boy. He had brown eyes, too, and was slouching as he stood. He wore a red shirt with the words "NO MO' RULES" in yellow, surrounded by a bubble of black.

Yuuki had attempted to listen in without them seeing him. He stood behind Ann Takamaki, a slightly taller, blonde girl. Her hair was done up into pigtails, and she was wearing a blue jumper around her waist, matching her blue eyes. He heard a meow, and then Ren looked over to him. He gave him a simple "Hello, Mishima." and a small smile.

'Damn, he really is a Phantom Thief, huh..?' He thought to himself, and moved closer to join in the conversation.

"Hey, guys. So, this trip, huh? Seems, useful for someone to gain popularity." Yuuki spoke softly, but tried to make a point. Oblivious, Ryuji donned a face of confusion.

  
"Uh, no." Ryuji said quickly. "I can't be bothered, it's such a pain in the ass." He said lethargically, drained of all power and energy to even think.

  
Ren looked to Yuuki and acted dumb. "Why? Unless you mean for Ann, maybe?"

  
Ann realised what he meant and smiled slightly. "Oh, I see! I suppose so... Mishima, do you follow my modeling?"

  
This garnered a small blush to his cheeks, not wanting to send the wrong message. "N-No! Course I don't, I... never mind..." He pocketed his hands and looked to Ren and Ryuji. "So, are you guys free after school? I heard Gigolo added some new games."

Ryuji smiled, and Ren thought for a second. "Well." Ren started. "I was supposed to go see a friend... but perhaps we can all hang out, grab a burger, too?"

Both Yuuki and Ryuji smiled more and more, and thought it was a great idea. "Sure, I'll be hanging around Shibuya then! Uh, see you!"

Yuuki walked out of the classroom, pushing his work to the back of his mind, and wondering who this fourth person is. Perhaps another Phantom Thief? Maybe a target they want to change the heart of.

Ann sighed. "I'm not coming, I gotta keep my weight perfect. Can't go eating burgers."

Ryuji snorted and laughed a little. "You don't wanna go packin' the pounds with them crêpes... You'll get a freakin' muffin top!" Ryuji joked, rubbing his nose with his finger.

Morgana nearly shrieked, shocked at the lack of Ryuji's... Natural tact. "Hey! I know Lady Ann would look wonderful no matter her figure!" After complimenting Ann, he stared at her and entered a dream-like state for a few seconds.

Ann looked offended and bit back at Ryuji's comment. "What do you mean!? My diet is fine! What about you, you'll die from all the meat you consume, you carnivore!"

Ryuji didn't know if she was trying to offend him or praise him. "Uh, thanks? But seriously, you gotta exercise more."

Ann and Ryuji then bickered for a while, and a saddened Morgana piped up. "Who're you taking to Big Bang this time, Joker?"

Ren smiled, and cleared his throat a little. "Only our very own resident artist."

_ **~Timeskip~** _

Yuuki waited just outside one of the many Big Bang Burger joints dotted around Japan, as he was sent a text from Ren to meet there.

He was waiting for three people. A black haired, glasses wearing Phantom Thief leader, a faux blonde, delinquent looking ex track star, and an unknown individual.

Yuuki didn't like not knowing things, he has a tendency to gather information, especially for the Thieves. He knows he helps them, I mean, the messages he gets over the Phorum are proof, right?

He shook his scattered thoughts out of his head, as the piercing -but lovable- voice of Ryuji Sakamoto bellowed down the street. Not only did his hair stand out like a sore thumb, but he was wearing grey, above knee length shorts, a bright yellow tank top saying "ON UR MARK!" and his trademark Ryuji shoes.  
On his right was Ren, who wore some simple jeans, a black t-shirt, grey shoes, his black-rimmed glasses and a white jacket, sleeves rolled up just above his elbows.

And then the last person, the someone Yuuki doesn't know, appeared on Ryuji's left. He had medium length, deep blue hair, a purple buttoned up shirt, which was untucked. It seemed to look as if he had a black t-shirt under his purple shirt, too. He wore plain black dress shoes, and black trousers. Yuuki noticed the ring of keys he had hanging on his hips. He took quick note of this, the information may be useful for conversational purposes, of course.

Yuuki smiled as they approached him. Ryuji was first to say hi, and apologised for running a tad late.

"Yeah." The electric user started. "Sorry, I decided to run some more, and Yusuke here... well, it's... stupid, really." He slouched and looked toward the artist.

Yusuke merely shrugged, standing up straight, man-purse in hand. "You see, I haven't much money as of now, so I left the train one stop early to save enough to purchase some fries." He smiled softly.

Yuuki was intrigued. Lack of money, multiple keys... he seemed useful. Maybe he was right about him being a new member of the Thieves. Regardless, he spoke up a little. "Well, that's great... Yusuke, was it?"

Yusuke nodded, and answered his question to further detail. "Kitagawa. Yusuke Kitagawa." Yusuke extended his arm to shake the shorter boy.

"Yuuki Mishima, but just call me Mishima. It's great to meet you, Yusuke." He shook Yusuke's hand briefly, and then pocketed his own.

Ren pushed his glasses up a bit, proper anime style, and spoke up. "Come on, we should go get a seat before more people come." In unison, the other three boys nodded, and the four entered the Big Bang Burger.

_ **~Big Bang Burger, Shibuya~** _

As they entered, the smell of fast food hit them all in an instant. The noise of many customers, talking, arguing and some even working, filled their ears. Ren gave the idea of all trying the Challange, and if they win that he would pay for the arcade trip. They all accepted, Yusuke more hesitant than the other two.

Once they had ordered, they found a table for four and took their seats. Ryuji was on one side, with Yuuki quickly taking the seat next to him, leaving Ren to sit opposite Ryuji, and Yusuke next to Ren, opposite Yuuki. They started to talk about the arcade, Ryuji boasting about his high scores on various games. The conversation quickly changed to Yusuke and his interests.

The food had arrived five minutes into the topic of Yusuke, the four taking bites now and then, more interested in Yusuke. Ryuji took a huge bite and carried on talking. "Sho... You got a scholarship... cush of your art, yeah?" He said, slightly off, as his mouth was full, swallowing soon after.

Yusuke only looked at his food, a small bite had been taken out of it. He nodded. "Indeed, so I will need to submit a new piece soon, but what of?" He pondered to himself.

Ren gave the idea of taking inspiration of the arcade once they get there. "I mean it, the art for some of the games is great." He said, Yuuki backing him up.

"Yeah, he's not wrong. You should see the Marvel vs Capcom machines. Honestly, amazing character designs." Yuuki nearly started to geek out about who he mains and how Marvel vs Capcom 2 is better than 3. But he stopped himself. Ryuji was chowing down on his food, while Ren and Yusuke started to talk about art. Well, it was mainly Yusuke teaching Ren new art lingo.

He thought about what was said about Yusuke, how he is some master artist. He felt like nothing compared to him. And then Ryuji, with his athletic prowess. He could outrun Yuuki any day, with no chance of failure. Yuuki started to feel more and more insecure. He ate until he couldn't eat anymore, and looked up to see that Ren had finished the burger, nothing left to be seen. He did it. He accomplished something. But it wasn't just this burger, no. Ren took down Kamoshida and Madarame, he always gets every answer correct at school and he doesn't let others views of him drag himself down.

Yuuki felt like an outcast, a 'zero'.

Yuuki was thinking about too much, not realising the others had stopped eating too, and where waiting on him.

"Yo, Mishima! You alright?" Ryuji had snapped Yuuki out of his trance, and said how they where thinking of heading to the arcade now.

"Oh, sure. Let's go." He said, somewhat halfheartedly. Ren immediately picked up on this, and wondered about it to himself.

They left the burger joint, Ren not having paying whilst Ryuji had to cover for Yusuke, too. Once they left, they swiftly made there way to the arcade, which was right next to the Big Bang Burger.

_ **~Gigolo Arcade, Shibuya~** _

The familiar surrounding soothed Yuuki's mental pain, as he looked around and smiled. The claw machines where filled with these black and white bears with a weirdly shaped red eye, kids where lining up to try and win one. But what they wanted to do was play some games.

So while Ren took Yusuke to play Mario Kart, explaining how to accelerate and turn, using the pads and wheel attached to the machine, Yusuke trying to sit comfortably in the fake race car seat, Yuuki asked Ryuji if he played fighting games.

And apparently Ryuji comes here so much so, that his reputation on the Marvel vs Capcom machine was quite high. So only naturally, Yuuki asked to have a game.

"Hell yeah! I love that game, but be warned... I'LL TOTALLY DESTROY YOUR ASS!" He shouted, visibly excited about the whole thing. Yuuki merely smiled, and they both walked to the machine.

_"I'm gonna take you for a ride~!"_ Is what they heard, as they put some money into the machine. The character select screen appeared, and they chose their fighters.

Ryuji, looking confidant, chose Hulk, then Colossus and finally Venom. He smiled and looked at Yuuki, who had chosen Mega Man, then Felicia and lastly, Ryu.

Yuuki knew how to take out Ryuji's roster, and gave him a smile back. "Let's have a clean game, you ready?"

Ryuji grinned wider, and nodded furiously. "Hell yeah, get ready to taste defeat!"

  
After pressing start, some loading time later, they found themselves about to fight. Ryuji had a plan... don't stop hitting. Yuuki, however, had a better plan.

After a few minutes, the game was done. The loser was shocked, but kept his head hight, anyway. Yuuki watched the screen. _"Player 2 Victory!"_ It said, as Felicia stood triumphant over a knocked out Venom.

Yuuki smiled a little, and held his hand out to Ryuji. "GG, Capcom always wins!"

Ryuji shook his hand and smiled in return. "Man, you destroyed us! I only took out Mega Man, not a scratch on the other guys. You rock!"

Yuuki smiled a bit more. Did he find something he was good at?  
He stopped thinking about that when a hand was placed upon his left shoulder. It was Ren, with a confused Yusuke in tow. "Hey, nice one, Mishima! I can never beat Ryuji on that." Ren was surprised, and gave Yuuki a nod of accomplishment.

Yusuke had then caught up. "My my, did Mishima beat Ryuji at his own game? Now that is impressive!" He made two L's with his hands and tried to capture Ryuji's expression of despair, and seeing the contrast between him and Yuuki. "I have it! My next piece will be on emotions, maybe even victory... Mishima, thank you kindly." Yusuke said with gratitude, genuinely thankful for Yuuki inspiring him.

Yuuki felt... embarassed, to tell the truth. He never really had friends, especially not friends who cared for him, either. He felt like he could cry, but knew not too. He looked at his three friends, Ryuji now recovered from his fall from grace. The three looked back at him, thankful for everything he has done for them. Yuuki stared at Ren, and Ren gave him a welcoming look.

The way Ren intended it to look may have been anything. It could have meant welcome to our friendship, or welcome to the jungle, but Yuuki, his interpretation of the look?

Welcome to the Phantom Thieves, Mishima.

**Author's Note:**

> So, that was my first bit of work.
> 
> This was only a short one-shot, and I plan on writing about other fandoms too, like Overwatch, My Hero Academia and the other Persona games!
> 
> I would really appreciate some feedback, what I did wrong and right, that sort of stuff. And please point out any spelling and/or grammar mistakes!
> 
> Well, that's all I suppose, see you next time! <3


End file.
